Not my Style
by PatchTheProdigy
Summary: After another one of Melody's concerts, Ace has something to make the night sparkle. (Cowritten with NotRamjet97; My Little Pony Tales Fanfiction, Melody x Ace)


The din of cheering teenagers filled the warm night air, electrifying the otherwise-tranquil air with the spirit of the audience. Eon's final guitar note still hung on the air, slightly audible past the din of cheering.

Melody Riff was very much used to it, and the ropes of performing. The feeling always exhilarated her, those cheers for her, wanting more, or appreciating her preferred mode of creative expression. Every single time she did it, the same tingly feeling in her core of gravity occurred.

As her own way of giving back, she always played a quick scale (that night, a minor version of the Bb major scale) and bowed to the audience. Right in the front row, her friends' faces were possibly the least exuberant, but the most aware of how much that concert meant to their rockstar friend. She grinned largely as she bid the audience farewell.

One friend always waited for her backstage. That friend fluctuated a bit with time. For a while, it was either Starlight with a simple "great job" compliment. For most of her childhood, it was Patch, who had some remark that was almost always interesting. For three years, it was Clover, who was arguably her best friend.

These days, it was Ace.

"Great job, as always, Mel." The tan high schooler smiled as Melody placed her guitar in its cushioned black case, which had colorful stickers all over the top.

She didn't need to smile, but directed her preexisting one towards Ace. "Did you expect anything less?"

"Nope. So… you want some help?"

"Duh. You just think you can get a backstage pass without doing some work?"

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Well… Maybe?"

Melody rolled her eyes and put the guitar case in Ace's arms. "Put this over in the car. Then help me out with the amps."

"Yes, sir." Ace jokingly saluted.

"Ace…" Melody shook her head, rolling her eyes, before they departed in separate directions. Melody stepped out on stage, waved to the audience (which was already thinning, it hadn't been a vastly huge group) and pushed the amp in front of her, careful with the expensive equipment. She accumulated the second of them and dragged them all the way down the ramp that would lead to her mom's green and yellow stationwagon before she saw her boyfriend again.

Apparently he was lollygagging, just standing in front of her mom's station wagon. Melody sighed, getting this guy to work had to be the hardest thing in the world. As soon as he saw her, he immediately rushed over. "So… what else do you need help with?"

"Well, I need to get the stereo system. By 'I,' I mean you, big boy."

"Right, be right back." Ace rushed into the concert hall.

In a few minutes, Ace came back, wheeling the two big stereos on a dollie. Melody could tell he was having a hard time with it, and couldn't help but giggle at the soccer MVP struggling with pushing a couple of sound systems. When he got close enough, she asked. "Need any help?"

Ace shook his head, "Nope." He seemed to struggle more after that, just to make it obvious that he *didn't need help and that he was joking around.

Melody shook her head, rolling her eyes as she walked over. Ace looked at her with quizzical amusement, but was a lot more relieved than he led on as he silently made room for her to help. The platform on wheels didn't move much faster, but Ace was much less visibly strained with the heavy equipment.

She opened the doors to the back seats of the van. She took a look at her boyfriend, who just looked questioningly at her. "You know, if you struggled to push these things over here, then there's no way we're getting them in here."

Ace grinned confidently. "That was all for show," he assured. He tensed a tiny bit, almost imperceptibly, as he hugged one of the smaller of the stereos. "Just… hang out, I'll be done with this in no time."

Ace hurriedly lifted the stereo, and pushed it into the car. It bounced a bit on the padded car seats. Melody leaned up against the car, unhappy that Ace was straining himself but also unwilling to get involved herself. "Just stay out of the way," Ace eventually snapped, losing his cool countenance. "You'll get hurt!"

"What tells you that, Ace?" Melody asked, voice going cold.

"You were doing all that dancing earlier, this might strain you even more."

"Huh, I am NOT the one with strained dancing in this relationship!" She huffed and looked away. The last thing she saw was Ace looking annoyedly at her.

When nothing happened for a bit, one of Melody's eyes cracked open.

She had expected a lot of things: Ace leaning in for a kiss and making her anger worse while it evaporated, Ace leaving, or Ace doing some other thing to annoy her. She did not expect him to be holding out a gift.

A bright pink jacket, made of a leatherlike material, was in his tense hand, balled up. There were some baubles on it in some places, like rhinestones. A sincere look shone through his annoyance in the half-light as he held it out to her. "Being sentimental isn't my business, but I bought this for you." He shuffled a bit on his feet. "I wanted to make tonight special, and try and let you relax. You'd been working so hard on this concert and I know the feeling."

Melody snatched the jacket from Ace's hands, letting its full essence be seen. She looked over it, taking in the details: it had five pockets on it, had medium-length sleeves, and was about a size too small.

Then she looked at Ace, and then at the jacket again. Then her shock amounted to something. "Oh. Well, thank you, I guess. It's not really my style."

She put her arms through the sleeves. The thing was actually pretty comfortable for being so tiny. Still, she couldn't picture herself wearing something like it. She slipped the jacket off and handed it to a rather irritated looking Ace.

"That figures…" He groaned. "It cost me almost sixty jangles!"

"Well, hey, we can take it back and get it in the right size, if it means that much to you," Melody tried to stay positive. She couldn't keep a tiny bit of amusement out of her tone.

Ace sighed, "I guess. But this is irritating. I go to the expense and I thought, and it goes wrong. Hmph."

"It was an honest mistake." Melody sincerely smiled at Ace, "And it's the thought that counts. This was really sweet of you, Ace."

Ace perked up, then smirked. "Hey, it just occurred to me. We don't need to go back to the store if you change your clearly-faulty fashion sense so this stylish jacket is within it."

Melody playfully punched Ace. "C'mon. Let's get you home, you big lug."

999

This story is in the same universe as _Mirum Amore, _which is also cowritten by NotRamjet97 and I.


End file.
